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And that leaves the last brother: At 15 he talked his way into serving with the local AFS, then swapped into the local ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Guard at 16yrs. He recalls being on solo guard duty on Bowcombe Down with no real equipment though the threat of invasion was so high at that time. ( When Newport had its worst raid in 1943 he was on site to help dig people out of the rubble of houses destroyed yards away from our home. There were gruesome sights and things to deal with but somehow we did. Our home was badly damaged but we were able to stay, with no heat, electricity, no windows, no ceilings, no gas.)
As soon as he was old enough he too joined the Army, and within months he was with the invasion forces liberating Europe and saw service in France, Holland, Norway and Germany, he too returned uninjured.
While waiting to go over he spent a few hours on an LCT craft off the end of Ryde pier, he said he could see the people on the shore waving but could not spot his girlfriend who lived in the town.
Though they may not have carried physcial scars, the sights and sounds they all saw remained with them. They all completed their service and never spoke much of the war. This may seem a catalogue of Service records, but for those of us at home, the years were fraught, never knowing where the lads were, coping with day to day civilian problems, daily air raids, troops swarming everywhere etc. so although our war story may not sound interesting, we also shared on every war front..

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